The present invention relates to a micro-chemical system for on-chip implementation of chemical-synthetic and chemical-analytic operations by employing micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology, and also relates to a micro-spectroscopic measuring device necessary for the micro-chemical system, manufacturing methods therefore and application methods thereof.
As the basic infrastructure supporting the chemical industries of today, there are the chemical plants that supply various synthetic materials. In the sector of chemical plants, the technology currently drawing attention from the viewpoint of comprehensive cost reduction, such as energy savings and environmental impact alleviations by decreasing reaction byproducts and cutting down the plant floor spaces, etc. is the micro-chemical system, which integrates chemical reaction operations on an on-chip plant by employing MEMS technology. FIGS. 1 and 2 are a conceptual diagram of a micro-chemical plant and a conceptual diagram of micro-chemical unit operations.
In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a substrate of glass or silicon (Si), for example; 2 denotes a sample flow path several tens of μm to 100 μm in width and depth formed in the substrate; 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 denote drains; 9, 310, 11 and 12 denote micro pumps; 13 denotes a micro valve; 14 denotes a temperature control mechanism; 15, 16 and 17 denote connectors; 18, 19 and 20 denote connecting operation of connectors; 21 and 22 denote injection of material; 23 denotes extraction of synthesized substance; and 24 denotes a complete system of a micro-chemical plant.
To begin with, the connectors 15, 16 are connected to the drains 3, 4, and materials 21, 22 are supplied. Then, the valve 13 is opened, the sample materials are fed by the pumps 9, 10, and the valve 13 is opened to feed the materials to the flow path 2. Next, the temperature controller 14 is actuated for heating or cooling. As a result, as shown in FIG. 2, chemical unit operations take place, such as mixing•reaction, phase separation•phase conjunction, heating, and molecule manipulation•solvent extraction. Furthermore, the connector 17 is connected to the drain 7, making it possible to extract a synthetic substance 23.
In the micro-chemical system, as shown in FIG. 2, as the micro fluid size becomes smaller, the unit chemical reactions, such as mixing•reaction, phase separation•phase conjunction, heat generation, and molecule transport•solvent extraction, take place with high efficiency in proportion to the square or the cube of the size of the fluid. Therefore, the micro-chemical system is not only suitable for large-item small-volume production of chemical synthetic substances but also because it increases the yield per unit volume of material, it realizes high-efficiency mass production. Moreover, it becomes possible to decrease the quantity of reaction byproducts generated during synthesis.
To the manufacture of components of the micro-chemical system, such as the micro flow paths, micro valves, and the micro temperature controller, the existing ultra-micro machining technology in MEMS and semiconductor fabrication can be applied. In addition to chemical synthesis, expectations are held high for the micro-chemical system to be applied to analysis of environmental pollutants, such as endocrine disrupters, and dioxins or to analysis of biological substances, such as blood and DNA.
In chemical plants such as this, some means such as identification or quantitative analysis of reaction products means is generally required to measure in real time various properties of products. In the con-ventional micro-chemical systems, no such appropriate means are available.